Clean Tech Nation

With other nations aggressively forging ahead in clean tech—including renewable energy, smart grid, electric vehicles, and green buildings—how can the United States position itself for success? On its current path, the United States risks losing out on the most critical opportunity for job creation and global economic leadership in the 21st century. China is spending hundreds of billions on clean tech and is now the world leader in solar-panel and wind-turbine manufacturing. Germany plans to shutter all its nuclear power plants within a decade and build a new energy economy focused on renewables and efficiency. Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom, India, and many others are also enthusiastically pursuing these burgeoning possibilities. If the U.S. is to remain dominant, as it has in the earlier high-tech and Internet revolutions, it needs to supercharge efforts at every level—in federal, state, and city governments, and in schools, small businesses, and large companies. Industry experts Ron Pernick and Clint Wilder combine insightful analysis with lively storytelling to assess current clean-tech leaders worldwide, while highlighting front-running U.S. cities and states. Offering a Seven-Point Action Plan for Repowering America—with such controversial steps as ending all energy subsidies within ten years, launching a national smart infrastructure bank, and creating a new breed of clean-tech investment tools modeled on the oil and gas industries—Clean Tech Nation sounds a compelling and achievable call to action.